Another day, another comeback miracle

The Pacers trailed by 14 in the fourth quarter and by five with 90 seconds left. And then it happened. More to the point, Haliburton happened. Again.

OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s no way the Indiana Pacers just won this basketball game Thursday night in the Paycom Center. There’s absolutely no way. They committed 25 turnovers, including 19 in a preternaturally ugly first half, setting all kinds of post-season records for sloppiness in the process. They led the game for three-tenths of a second, falling behind early, 7-0, then trailing by 14 early in the fourth quarter and by five with 90 seconds remaining. They couldn’t stop Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the deserving MVP, who finished with 38 points.

But then it happened. Buoyed by white-hot 3-point shooting – they made 18 of 39, 46 percent – the Pacers hung around and hung around, somehow, staying within 10-to-12 points most of the night, only to rally, again, in the final minutes.

After several false starts – they pulled to within six and four points several times in the fourth quarter – it came down to this: Andrew Nembhard, who was huge in the fourth quarter, forced Canadian Olympic teammate SGA into a miss, the Pacers rebounded, the ball ended up in Tyrese Haliburton’s hands and then Haliburton did what Haliburton does: He made a memory, another one, just the way he did when he beat Giannis Antetokounmpo to the bucket in the Milwaukee series, just the way he did with his dagger three over Ty Jerome in the Cleveland series, just the way he did when he hit a long two over Mitchell Robinson to send the game into overtime in the Knicks series.

He's had a career’s-worth of heroic moments in this post-season run alone, a catalogue of Reggie Miller-like histrionics with the game, and maybe the NBA Finals, on the line.

It’s been legendary.